In October, Cristiano Ronaldo turned down Antonio Conte as a candidate to lead Manchester United.
According to the Manchester Evening News at the time, both the United management and Cristiano Ronaldo expressed doubts about Conte.

United have not consulted the players in the process of recruiting Ajax coach Erik ten Hag as manager. A majority of Manchester United's players favored Mauricio Pochettino, it was revealed in early February.

According to a high-level insider, a deal for Ten Hag was "essentially done" last week. On March 16, the MEN revealed that Ten Hag was United's favorite candidate, and a source said he had been their top choice for a long time.

As early as January, Manchester United were confident of acquiring Ten Hag and the 52-year-release old's clause is a paltry £1.7 million. In addition, the MEN reported in January that Manchester United want to find a new manager before the end of the current campaign.

With the possibility of the team failing to qualify for the Champions League next season, Cristiano Ronaldo's career at United is in jeopardy. When the competition was known as the Uefa Cup and Ronaldo was a 17-year-old Sporting Lisbon player, he had not played in the Europa League since October 2002, when he was playing for United.

After United's humiliating 5-0 loss to Liverpool on October 24, according to people close to the team, Ronaldo tried to keep the dressing room together, but he was open about his displeasure with manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Reassurances were sought from Ed Woodward that the club would sack Solskjaer in the aftermath of the terrible 4-1 flogging by Watford on November 20, and Jorge Mendes promptly recommended Sevilla coach Julen Lopetegui as the new manager. United's decision to hire Zinedine Zidane, Cristiano Ronaldo's former coach at Real Madrid, was an attempt to placate an increasingly worried Ronaldo.

Even though Conte, who is still unattached to any club until the end of the season, had no plans to replace Solskjaer after the Norwegian signed a three-year contract in July, he was open to the idea of taking over after United suffered consecutive Premier League defeats in October, to Leicester and Liverpool.
Nuno Espirito Santo's last match in charge of Tottenham was a 3-0 home defeat against Manchester United on October 30, which was also Solskjaer's last win. Tottenham appointed Conte three days later.

Six points separate Tottenham from Manchester United as they move up the Premier League table. A second-place finish for Tottenham would raise more concerns about United's decision-making.